2026 editorial shortlist
Cards for Business
Separate your business spending and earn more doing it.
Business cards keep company purchases off your personal cards and often earn more in the categories businesses actually spend on — internet and phone bills, gas, dining, and travel. All four cards below are dedicated small-business products.
These editorial shortlists compare published reward rates, annual fees, spending caps, and practical usage constraints. They are not personalized optimizer rankings, and affiliate relationships do not determine the ordering.
Editorial picks
Featured pick
Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Chase
$0
Flat 1.5x Chase Ultimate Rewards points on every purchase with no annual fee and nothing to activate — the simplest card in the Ink lineup.
Chase Ink Business Cash
Chase
$0
5x points on office supply stores and internet, cable, and phone services (combined $25,000/year cap), 2x at gas stations and restaurants (separate $25,000/year cap), 1x elsewhere. No annual fee; streaming is not an eligible Ink Cash category.
Chase Ink Business Preferred
Chase
$95/year
3x points on travel, shipping, social media and search-engine advertising, and internet/cable/phone services — combined up to $150,000/year (effectively uncapped for most businesses), 1x elsewhere. Streaming is not an eligible Ink Preferred category. Points transfer to the same airline and hotel partners as the Chase Sapphire cards.
Amex Business Gold
American Express
$375/year
4x Membership Rewards points on your top 2 monthly categories among advertising media, electronics/software/cloud, restaurants, gas, transit, and wireless phone service (up to $150,000/year combined), 1x elsewhere. Also up to $240/year in credits at FedEx, Grubhub, and select office-supply stores.
Tips
Business cards usually just require an EIN or your SSN as a sole proprietor — a side hustle or freelance income is enough to qualify in most cases.
Chase’s two Ink cash-back cards share Ultimate Rewards points with any personal Chase Sapphire card you hold, unlocking transfer partners you wouldn’t get from the business card alone.
Amex Business Gold’s 4x categories are chosen automatically each month based on where you spent most — you don’t have to pick them yourself.
Keep business and personal spending on separate cards even when the rewards rate is similar — it makes bookkeeping and tax time dramatically simpler.
Complete setup
Cards selected for one category rarely make the strongest modeled overall wallet.
These editorial picks focus on business, but the modeled combination depends on your total spending across every category. The optimizer models eligible combinations and tells you whether its result was proven optimal within that run's inputs or was the strongest valid setup found before timeout.
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Not financial advice. OptimalCardSetup provides mathematical optimization tools for educational and informational purposes only. This does not constitute financial, investment, or credit advice. Card rates, fees, and benefits shown are last checked as of Aug 2, 2026. Terms may change — always verify current details with the card issuer before applying.